KEYNOTE SPEAKER

Simon J. Ortiz

Prof. Simon J. Ortiz is an Indigenous poet and writer of Acoma Pueblo heritage who specializes in Indigenous Literature. Courses of study focus on decolonization of Indigenous peopleâs land, culture, and community. With literary perspective as a guide, research interests include cultural, social, political dynamics of Indigenous peoples of North, Central, and South America. Prof. Ortizâs publications in poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction, essay, and childrenâs literature reflect his literary perspective across a range of his varied, active engagement and involvement in contemporary Indigenous life and literature. His publications, research, varied experience and intellectual participation is the basis of his engaging approach to the study of involvement-engagement with Indigenous literature and its place in the canon of world literatures. Prof. Ortiz is also the founder and coordinator of the Indigenous Speakers Series sponsored by ASU Department of English and American Indian Studies.

PLENARY SPEAKERS

David R. Castillo

Baroque Landscapes: The Spectacle of America

David R. Castillo is Associate Professor and Chair of Romance Languages and Literatures at SUNY, Buffalo. He published among others (A)wry Views: Anamorphosis, Cervantes, and the Early Picaresque (Indiana: Purdue University Press,2001) and Baroque Horrors: Roots of the Fantastic in the Age of Curiosities (Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 2010), Spectacle and Topophilia: Reading Early Modern and Postmodern Hispanic Cultures, ed. with Bradley J. Nelson (March 12, 2012), and is member of editorial board for Hispanic Studies. He has been awarded numerous fellowships and has been distinguished with Ersted Award for Distinguished Teaching.

Tadeusz RachwaĹ

From Coleâs Nature to Sheelerâs Factory; or on the Diminution of Man in Some American Spaces

Tadeusz RachwaĹ is Professor at University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Warsaw, Poland and Director of Anglophone Literature and Culture Department. He published among others: The Typewriter: On Jacques Derridaâs Deconstructive Theory of Literature, with T. SĹawek, (Oficyna LiteratĂłw âRĂłjâ, Warszawa 1992), The Most Sublime Act. Essays on the Sublime, ed. D. Jarrett, T. RachwaĹ, T. SĹawek (University of North London Press, 1996), Geometry, Winding Paths and the Mansions of Spirit, with D. Jarrett, T. SĹawek, (Katowice 1997), Organs-Organisms-Organisations. Organic Form in 19th-Century Discourse, ed. with T. SĹawek (Peter Lang, 2000) and Labours of the Mind. Labour in the Culture of Production (Peter Lang, 2001).

Ewa B. Ĺuczak

Eugenics and Wilderness: Reconstructing American Habitat in Nature and Culture 1900-1941

Dr. Ewa B. Luczak is Associate Professor at the Institute of English Studies, University of Warsaw, Poland and Vice President of the Polish Association for American Studies. Luczak is the author of How Their Living outside America Affected Five African American Authors: toward a Theory of Expatriate Literature (Mellen Press, 2010), co-editor of Czarno na biaĹym: Afro-amerykanie ktĂłrzy poruszyli AmerykÄ (Black on White; African Americans who Challenged America, Warsaw University Press, 2009), Mosaics of Words. Essays on the American and Canadian Literary Imagination (Institute of English Studies, 2009) In Other Words: Dialogizing Race, Ethnicity and Postcoloniality (Peter Lang, 2012) and co-editor of a Polish book series devoted to eminent American writers of the 20th and 21st century. She has been awarded numerous grants such as Fulbright Fellowship (UC Riverside 1996-7, UCLA 2007-8) and Kosciuszko Foundation Fellowship (Johns Hopkins University 2012). Currently she is working on a book project on the use of eugenic discourse in American literature and culture prior to WW II.